During the late 19th century,
Teaneck, Englewood and other areas of Bergen County near New York became the
estate grounds of many prominent business and professional leaders. William
Walter Phelps owned the largest tract among a number of grand country places,
which included the Englewood house of Morgan banker Dwight Morrow. ironically,
one of the last mansions in Teaneck was constructed on a part of the Phelps
property, sold after 1922 to David T. Bofinger, the president of the Atlantic
& Pacific Tea Company - also known as, grocery giant A&P. The site was
not grand by standards of that day, approximately 20 acres, most of which would
be developed into house lots by the owner before 1936. Eschewing the opulence of
former tycoons, Bofinger chose to build a relatively modest brick block with
only a smattering of classical detail on a lot only twice the size of
neighboring suburban houses. In so doing, he prefigured the development of the
Winthrop Road and Standish Road subdivisions, in which large suburban
"period houses" echoing the popular styles of earlier country houses
would be tailored to the tastes of the emerging upper middle class commuter.